Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs - General Guide

A general guide for Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, the sequel to the Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Providing starter's information and also an advanced insight into the game's mechanics, story and other aspects that you will encounter.

Introduction

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a sequel to its horror predecessor, The Dark Descent. Several major aspects from the previous game were changed drastically, one could argue that perhaps for the better.

It's built on the same engine as The Dark Descent so you can expect the fundementals stay unchanged, however, you may be pleasantly surprised to see the changes which I will list in the gameplay mechanics section.

In case you've missed it, here's my guide for the prequel, Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1746556272

That's it for the introduction, since you're here for the guide, let's get into it.

Story

THE STORY SIDE OF THIS GAME IS SOMETHING WORTH EXPLORING ON YOUR OWN. IF YOU'RE PLAYING THE GAME FOR THE STORY, I SUGGEST READING NO FURTHER TO UNCOVER IT ON YOUR OWN. HOWEVER, NO SERIOUS STORY/ENDING RELATED SPOILERS ARE LISTED.

The story of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs takes place decades after the events of The Dark Descent. You play as Oswald Mundus, an industrialist who runs a large meat producing factory. According to the notes found in game, Mundus is a very caring and kind man, or was. He's always shown care and love for the poor and a serious distaste to the rich and wealthy.



Our protagonist has two sons; Enoch and Edwin. The story begins as Oswald wakes up in a caged bed, having lost his memory, he only knows his boys desperately need him and so he ventures to find them. Oswald's wife, Lily, died during a childbirth and so he made a promise to take care of their children as best as he can, whatever it would take.

While Oswald searches for his two sons, he often receives phone calls from a seemingly knowledgeable person, who tells Oswald what to do and where to go.
On his way through the factory, Oswald encounters odd monsters, creature that is a mix of a man and a pig; often finding pigs that have the intellect of a child, playing around.


You'll venture on a journey through the whole factory, on a quest of finding your sons, overcoming struggles, solving puzzles and slowly recovering your memory. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is compared to The Dark Descent really heavily oriented towards storytelling, rather than combating monsters, which takes a different shift compared to its prequel.

Characters

There are only few characters in this game that are directly shown, therefore there will be a lack of images but at the same time, they would reveal a lot about the story itself, so it's for the better.

Oswald Mandus is our main protagonist whose objective is to find his children that he keeps calling to him. He was born into an industrialist family and inherited a meat factory. His compassion for the poor and hatred for the rich lead him down a certain path. Just like his his grand uncle, Daniel, the survivor from The Dark Descent, Oswald also suffered Amnesia, however, he begins to recover his memory as the game progresses.

Edwin & Enoch, the two sons of Oswald Mundus. A lot can be learned about them by finding the notes. Just like their father, these two boys are very caring individuals.

Even though Manpigs might not be considered "characters", in the terms of story, you can only directly encounter a handful of them throughout the entire game. What makes them a worthy mention is how similiar to humans they are, only in looks they are pigs but in their "free time", they act like children or men, One can be found driving a truck, some are eating but often are aggressive, even if not in direct contact with the player.



Mysterious stranger is a somewhat informed person who keeps ringing the innovative factory phones at the right time, when Oswald is about. He keeps guiding Oswald through the facility, telling him what to do, where to go. Oswald himself points out that this stranger seems to know him very well.

Gameplay Mechanics & Tips

A Machine for Pigs differs from its predecessor in many ways, that have caught me by surprise.

• Lantern is now unlimited, enabling you to shine with it at all times, except when manpigs are nearby. Whenever there are manpigs close to you, every electric light will begin to flicker.
  
• You no longer collect tinderboxes or laudanums, likely because you get to use the lantern at all times. Also, there isn't any need for laudanums since your health regenerates on its own and at the same time, there is very little monster encounters for you to be in need of medical aid.
  
• There is only one difficulty, no hard mode or normal. Eliminating the possibility of more than one playthrough.
  
• It's relying heavily on story and less on monster encounters. It almost feels as if you're in the game by accident, merely observing what's happening as you often find manpigs going on about their business more than you find them trying to hold you back.
  
• There are pig masks scattered in the factory which makes it seem like they're following you. It's likely these pig masks hide something Oswald has yet to remember.

Achievements

All of the achievements are directly obtained, one by one, as you make progress in the storyline. Each for completing every larger area, an exception being the good ol 'Master Archivist' - collect all notes.

All the notes that you can find are in great majority in a direct path. There are 44 notes in the game, around ~37 are easily located, but the remaining few require a small detour or exploring the area.

Once again, I followed PureRuby87's guide on collecting all notes to ensure I get them with an ease.

https://youtu.be/YQWR5wRDtKE

Personal View

In the end, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs had many surprisingly acceptable changes compared to The Dark Descent. As I said above, there's much less monster encounters and stressing situations which, however, makes it less of a horror game but more akin to Alan Wake, as it tells the adventure through simply solving puzzles and reading notes.

it was really a relaxing experience, which I would not have thought I'd say about what is typically a horror game.

Closure

That's it for this guide, which was quite brief but it suffices for our introductory purposes.

Thank you for reading and enjoy the game!

[Average Zeppelin Enjoyer]

You should add the types of pig monsters to this list.

[Reinborn]

@TheManGames Send me a friend request and list all the achievements you cannot unlock.

[TheMan]

i can't seem to unlock half of the achievements that are in the game i don't know if it's a bug or i have to do something special in each area

[Randy Savage]

@Reinborn ha ha ha will be looking forward to it as i will be playing shadow of war soon !!

[Reinborn]

@Hentai Prom King I often put story conclusions and final thoughts in my guides as well as explaining the not-so-obvious hints and remarks that might've gone unnoticed but here, I really I left it out since story is all this game is about. For comparison, see my other guides for games such as Middle-earth series, Plague Inc: Evolved or DmC: Devil May Cry - that's where I let myself go a bit.

[Randy Savage]

@Reinborn. No problem man honestly it was great to read this i actually just finished the game and despite that most people didnt like the game i quite loved it. And with the help of your guide it helped me to understand the story more even though there were no spoilers. Once again great guide and im glad i found it!! ;)

[Reinborn]

@Hentai Prom King, Thank you, I'm always really glad when people find my guides useful. Despite the fact that there wasn't much else to write about this particular game, I always like to stick to my tradition of writing guides for every game I play.

[Randy Savage]

Nice Guide man I know im quite late but very well explained and i enjoyed it !! :)